O'Malley Told Federal Officials Not To House Illegals In Westminster

O'Malley Told Federal Officials Not To House Illegals In Westminster

The former U.S. Army Reserve Center in Westminster had been considered as a possible home for some of the children coming into the U.S. illegally. (WBAL's David Collins)

Hours after criticizing the Obama Administration's plans to send home the thousands of children from Central American coming into the U.S. illegally, Governor Martin O'Malley asked a top White House official not to house some of these children at a former U.S. Army Reserve Center in Westminster.

CNN reported O'Malley made the request to White House adviser Cecilia Munoz, in a phone call Friday night, hours after O'Malley criticized the Obama Administration policy at a news conference at the National Governors Association meeting in Nashville.

"He privately said 'please don't send these kids to Western Maryland,'" a Democratic source told CNN. The heated discussion between O'Malley and White House domestic policy adviser Cecilia Munoz occurred during a phone call late Friday evening, sources familiar with the conversation added.

The Obama Administration is proposing giving the Department of Homeland Security the power to speed up the deportation process for these children, who are coming from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.

“We are not a country that should turn children away and send them back to certain death,” O’Malley said last week at a National Governors Association meeting in Nashville.

The Department of Health and Human Services, which is tasked with finding temporary housing for these children, had notified Westminster officials on Friday that the Westminster building was being considered.

A number of officials complained, including Maryland 1st District Republican Congressman Andy Harris, even though the building is not in his district, though Harris represents portions of Carroll County.

On Saturday night, federal officials notified local officials, including Harris, that the Westminster facility was no longer being considered.

Politico reports that O'Malley told Munoz that if the children would be sent to Westminster they would be, "harassed or worse."